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Call key data
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (implementing the ‘Blueprint')
Funding Program
Erasmus+ - Key Action 2 – Cooperation among Organisations and Institutions
Call number
ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-ALL-INNO-BLUEPRINT
deadlines
Opening
05.12.2024
Deadline
06.03.2025 17:00
Funding rate
80%
Call budget
€ 62,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
max. € 4,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills aim to create new strategic approaches and cooperation for concrete skills development solutions – both in the short and the medium term – in areas implementing a major action of the European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, the Pact for Skills.
Call objectives
Alliances for Innovation aim to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity by boosting innovation through cooperation and flow of knowledge among higher education, vocational education and training (both initial and continuous), and the broader socio-economic environment, including research.
They also aim to boost the provision of new skills and address skills mismatches by designing and creating new curricula for higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET), supporting the development of a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets in the EU.
These partnerships shall implement a coherent and comprehensive set of sectoral or cross-sectoral activities, which should be adaptable to future knowledge developments across the EU.
To boost innovation, the focus will be on talent and skills development. Firstly, digital competences have become increasingly important in all job profiles across the entire labour market. Secondly, the transition to a circular and greener economy needs to be underpinned by changes to qualifications and national education and training curricula to meet emerging professional needs for green skills and sustainable development. Thirdly, the twin digital and green transition requires an accelerated adoption of new technologies, in particular in the highly innovative deep tech domains, across all sectors of our economy and society.
The objectives of Alliances for Innovation can be achieved by applying to one or both of the following Lots (an organisation can be involved in several proposals).
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Expected effects and impacts
Alliances for Innovation will be anchored in strategic and sustainable cooperation among vocational education and training, higher education and enterprises working together to boost the innovation capacity of Europe. They will considerably strengthen the synergies between both educational fields in fostering innovation, new skills, a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets. These Alliances among HE, VET and the enterprises are expected to contribute to the development of regional eco-systems and directly provide a valuable input to the economy, integrating work-based learning. While universities have research knowledge and data that allows them to directly provide input to small and medium sized enterprises to boost local economies, VET providers supply skills needed by enterprises and they are able to foster growth in the local economy.
At a larger scale, Alliances for Innovation are expected to target societal and economic challenges, both in education and employment, and take into account key areas such as innovation challenges, skills provision, climate change, green economy, demography, digitalisation and artificial intelligence. Benefits can also be drawn from cooperation with large enterprises. The Alliances for Innovation will focus on the need of citizens and accelerate the modernization of HE and VET.
The Pact for Skills will not only establish a framework for the implementation of the other actions of the updated Skills Agenda, but also for the dissemination and exploitation of the project results of the Alliances for Innovation. In particular the results of the Blueprint Alliances for sectoral cooperation on skills will be used as a basis for the Pact for Skills sectoral large-scale partnerships.
In addition, the Alliances will help to implement the EU Communication on the Renewed Agenda for Higher Education and contribute to the creation of a European Education Area. They will also contribute to implement the new European Innovation Agenda and the EU Industrial and SMEs strategies (2021).
The Alliances for Innovation will also take into account the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Declaration on Climate Change as overarching parameters of the action, thus helping the European Commission to implement its new Green Deal and the Europe Recovery Plan. The Alliances will also contribute ideas to the New European Bauhaus initiative which aims to design new sustainable ways of living to meet the objectives of the Green Deal.
Alliances for Innovation are meant to have a short and long term impact on the wider range of stakeholders involved, at individual, organisational and systemic level. This impact is expected to go beyond the project's lifetime and beyond the organisations involved in the partnerships. It is expected that partnership and activities persist. For that, results/deliverables might not be stand-alone but be linked to/integrated into existing undertakings, schemes, projects, platforms, ventures etc.
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Expected results
The initiative provides large-scale partnerships established under the Pact for Skills, already 20 up until now with more in preparation, with the opportunity to support the development of sector skills strategies, as well as the revision and development of job profiles and of related training programmes. The main objective of the Pact is to mobilise and incentivize all relevant stakeholders to take concrete actions for the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, by pooling efforts and setting up partnerships, also at EU level, addressing the needs of the labour market, supporting green and digital transitions as well as national, regional and local skills and growth strategies. Therefore, the deliverables of Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills, i.e. sectoral skills intelligence, skills strategies, occupational profiles, training programmes, and long-term planning, will be an important contribution to the work of the ecosystem-based large-scale partnerships that have joined the Pact for Skills.
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills seek to tackle skills gaps on the labour market that hamper growth, innovation and competitiveness in specific sectors or areas, aiming both at short term interventions and long-term strategies. These Alliances will be implemented in the 14 industrial ecosystems identified in the New Industrial Strategy for Europe (see eligibility criteria).
The large-scale Pact for Skills partnerships in ecosystems will build on the Blueprint for sectoral cooperation on skills. Therefore, Alliances under Lot 2 will support the implementation of the commitments under the Pact by developing sectoral skills strategies. These strategies have to lead to systemic and structural impact on reducing skills shortages, gaps and mismatches, as well as ensuring appropriate quality and levels of skills. The sectoral skills strategies must include a clear set of activities, milestones and well-defined objectives with the goal to match demand and supply of skills to support the overall implementation of ecosystem-based large-scale skills partnerships under the Pact. The Alliances aim to build the bases for these Skills partnerships and define the pathway that should be continued after the projects are finalised.
Drawing on evidence regarding skills needs with regard to occupational profiles, Blueprint Alliances support the design and delivery of transnational education & training content, as well as teaching and training methodologies, for quick take-up at regional and local level and for new occupations that are emerging. For this, Alliances should base their proposals on existing work of Centres of Vocational Excellence, of regions implementing smart specialization strategies, of European Cluster Partnerships and of Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Technology (EIT) that are active in the same industrial ecosystem.
Proposals should include the design of continuing vocational training programmes to address urgent skills needs of people in working age. Proposals should also include developments of emerging occupational profiles, related qualifications, which should cover upper and post-secondary VET levels (EQF levels 3 to 5) and tertiary levels (EQF levels 6 to 8). Furthermore, proposals should include the design of related core curricula and education and training programmes leading to those qualifications.
Each project must include among its partners both vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) organisations and labour market actors. Ideally, they also involve policy bodies, certifying bodies as well as European sectoral associations and representatives of industry.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Iceland (Ísland), Liechtenstein, North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Türkiye
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Blueprint) must cover at least 8 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme and involve at least 12 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). The consortium must include at least 5 labour market actors (enterprises or companies, or representative intermediary organisations, such as chambers, trade unions or trade associations) and at least 5 education and training providers (VET and HEIs) as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). There should be at least one HE institution and one VET provider involved as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) in each proposal.
Affiliated entities and associated partners do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for the consortium composition, and cannot be coordinator.
The applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities, if applicable) must be:
- Registered members of the Pact for Skills
- Public or private organisations legally established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the programme, such as:
- Higher education institutions
- VET providers
- Networks of VET providers
- Small and medium-sized or large enterprises (including social enterprises)
- Research institutes
- Non-governmental organisations
- Public bodies at local, regional or national level
- Organisations active in education, training and youth
- Intermediaries that represent education, training or youth organisations or enterprises
- Accreditation, certification, recognition or qualification bodies
- Chambers of commerce, industry or labour, chambers of skilled crafts
- European or national social partners
- Hospitals or other care institutions, including long-term care
- Authorities responsible for education, training or employment at regional or national level
- Employment services
- National statistics offices
- Economic development agencies
- Sectoral or professional associations
- Sector skills councils
- Bodies providing career guidance, professional counselling, information services and employment services
Organisations from third countries not associated to the Programme may also participate as beneficiaries, affiliated entities or associated partners, but not as coordinator, if their participation brings an essential added value to the project. Exception: organisations from Belarus (Region 2) and the Russian Federation (Region 4) are not eligible to participate in this action.
Higher education institutions established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme must hold a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE). An ECHE is not required for participating HEIs in third countries not associated to the Programme.
other eligibility criteria
The available call budget is split between two calls: ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-ALL-INNO-BLUEPRINT and ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-ALL-INNO-EDU-ENTERP
This action follows a lump-sum funding model. The amount of the single lump-sum contribution will be determined for each grant based on the estimated budget of the action proposed by the applicant. The amount will be fixed by the granting authority on the basis of the estimated project budget, evaluation result and a funding rate of 80%.
Financial support to third parties in the form of grants or prizes is not allowed.
Volunteer costs are allowed. They shall take the form of unit costs as defined in the Commission Decision on unit costs for volunteers. SME unit costs for SME owners without a salary are allowed. They should take the form of unit costs as defined in to the Commission Decision on unit costs for SMEs owners.
The 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the Annual Single Market Report 2021:
- Mobility-Transport-Automotive: Production of motor vehicles, ships and trains, and accessories; Their repair and maintenance; Freight Transport etc.
- Textile: Production of textiles, wearing apparel, footwear, leather and jewellery etc.
- Renewable Energy: Electric motors, engines and turbines; Electric power generation; Manufacturing and distribution of gas etc.
- Electronics: Production of electronics etc.
- Retail: Retail sales, Wholesale connected to consumers etc
- Construction: Building of residential and non-residential estates; Building of roads and railways; Building of utilities and civil engineering; Associated activities; etc.
- Aerospace & Defence: Aircraft production; space manufacturing and services; defence products and technologies, etc.
- Low-carbon energy Intensive Industries: Extraction of fossil fuels; Refining; Manufacturing of products with high environmental impact: plastics, chemicals, fertilisers, iron and steel, forest-based products, cement, rubber, non-ferrous metals, etc.
- Tourism: Passenger transport and travel; Hotels, short term accommodation; Restaurants and catering; Events, theme parks etc.
- Agri-food: Plant and animal production; Processing of food; Veterinary activities etc.
- Creative & Cultural Industries: Newspapers, books and periodicals; Motion picture, video and television; Radio and music; etc..
- Digital: Telecommunications; Software and programming; Web portals; Manufacturing of computers and equipment, etc.
- Proximity & Social Economy: Social enterprises, associations and cooperatives aiming at generating a social impact, etc.
- Health: Pharmaceutical products and equipment; Hospitals, nursing homes, residential care etc.
For their proposal, alliances must choose a single industrial ecosystem which their project will address.
A proposal may concern an ecosystem that is not covered by an on-going Blueprint project or an ecosystem that has already an on-going Blueprint. In the latter case, the proposal must address fields and areas that are clearly different from those addressed by the on-going Blueprint project/s.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
48 months
Additional Information
Applications must be submitted to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).
To submit an Erasmus+ project, applicants must follow the four steps described below.
- Registration. Each applicant must be registered as follows:
- For actions managed by the Executive Agency, applicants, affiliated entities, and associated partners must register in the Funding & Tenders Portal and receive a Participant Identification Code (PIC). Organisations/groups that have already obtained a PIC through their participation in other EU progrommes do not need to register again. The PIC obtained from this previous registration is valid also for applying under Erasmus+;
- For actions managed by National Agencies, applicants must, if not already done, register through the Organisation Registration system for Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps and receive an Organisation ID.
- Check the compliance with the programme criteria for the relevant Action/field;
- Check the financial conditions;
- Fill in and submit the application form.
Applications (Part B) are limited to 40 pages for calls for low value grants (EUR 60 000 or below), 120 pages for calls with high value grants (EUR 4 000 000), and 70 for all other calls. The following actions make exception to this rule: 40 pages for “Capacity Building in Higher Education” (CBHE) and 70 pages for the action Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters. Evaluatorswill not consider any additional pages.
Call documents
Erasmus + Programme Guide 2025Erasmus + Programme Guide 2025(5820kB)
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